Laurentian Financial institution Overview 2025

What’s Laurentian Financial institution?

Laurentian Financial institution is an establishment that has been round for over 175 years. Initially referred to as the Montreal Metropolis and District Financial savings Financial institution, they modified their title in 1987. Laurentian Financial institution has a big presence in Quebec, with over 60 branches. Nevertheless, their merchandise can be found to all Canadians by means of on-line banking.

Is Laurentian Secure and Trusted?

Laurentian Financial institution was based in 1846 so that they have a longstanding monitor report within the Canadian banking scene. 

Most significantly, they’re a member establishment of the Canada Deposit Insurance coverage Company (CDIC). This insurance coverage protects deposits of as much as $100,000 for every eligible account class equivalent to particular person accounts, joint accounts, registered accounts equivalent to RRSPs and TFSAs, and extra.

As for his or her Visa bank cards, they’ve Zero Legal responsibility fraud insurance coverage defending you from unauthorized purchases made in your card. All that to say that Laurentian Financial institution is actually fairly secure. Naturally, I’m referring to security from chapter loss, and fraud safety right here – not safety from dangerous funding selections.

Charges

Laurentian Financial institution actually has extra charges than we like for a web-based banking choice. Even with free “primary options” if you maintain $3,000 in your chequing account, you’re nonetheless paying for issues like Interac e-transfer transactions except you’re paying for his or her premium chequing account. Charges for e-transfers have turn out to be almost exceptional with a lot of Canada’s finest chequing accounts. For instance, they’re free with prime on-line banks: EQ Financial institution, Neo Monetary, Simplii Monetary, and Tangerine Financial institution.

With Laurentian Financial institution, Interac e-transfer transactions are $1.00 every as are Interac e-transfer request cash. Interac debit transactions price $1.25.

Transfers between Laurentian Financial institution accounts with LBCDirect and the cellular app are $1.00, as are withdrawals from a Laurentian Financial institution or THE EXCHANGE™ Community ATM except you preserve a minimal month-to-month stability of $3,000.

Paper statements price $3.00 per thirty days. Cheques are $1.25 except you maintain a stability of $3,000 through which case they’re free.

When it comes to a few of the heftier charges – it would be best to be conscious of your account utilization. Overdraft safety prices $5 per thirty days of utilization and the non-sufficient funds (NSF) price is a whopping $65!

Dormant account charges begin at $15 and go all the best way as much as $45 on the ninth dormant 12 months. If you wish to shut an account, that’ll price you $20 if you’re closing it inside the window of 15 to 90 enterprise days of getting opened the account.

Account Choices

Laurentian Financial institution provides many several types of accounts. Whereas the variety of account choices is spectacular, the charges could be a bit a lot relying on what options you make the most of repeatedly.

Chequing

Laurentian Financial institution presently provides 5 totally different chequing accounts, two of that are age-specific (youth & seniors). Some accounts additionally provide month-to-month reductions for college students ages 16 to 25 and for these ages 60 and over. 

The principle variance between the totally different accounts lies in what number of month-to-month banking transactions are included. The transactions embrace: 

• Withdrawals, transfers, and invoice funds at Laurentian Financial institution and THE EXCHANGE™ Community ATMs (over 3,000 throughout Canada)
• Transfers and invoice funds with LBCDirect and the cellular app
• Interac® Debit transactions
• Cheques and pre-authorized funds

If you preserve a minimal $3,000 month-to-month stability, your primary options are free! 

Primary options embrace:

• Transfers between Laurentian Financial institution accounts with LBCDirect and the cellular app
• Withdrawal from a Laurentian Financial institution or THE EXCHANGE™ Community ATM
• Pre-authorized cost
• Cheque

Primary options don’t embrace e-transfers.

Financial savings

The Excessive Curiosity Financial savings Account (HISA) provided by Laurentian Financial institution has a reasonably aggressive fee when in comparison with the highest Canadian Excessive Curiosity Financial savings Accounts.

On the time of writing, the charges have been as follows:

• 2.50% on balances of financial savings underneath $100,000
• 3.50% on financial savings from $100,000 to $5,000,000
• 1.00% on financial savings over $5,000,000

As you’ll be able to see, the speed is finest for somebody with over $100,000. In any other case, you’ll be finest off in one other HISA, equivalent to EQ Financial institution’s Private Account which delivers a 3.50% rate of interest with no minimal stability.

US Accounts

Laurentian Financial institution provides an account referred to as the “Day by Day Curiosity Plus US Account” which is meant for frequent vacationers to america. This account features as a little bit of a hybrid between a Chequing Account and a Financial savings Account. All the things is in USD and when you maintain a minimal $3,000 month-to-month stability then transaction and account upkeep charges are free.

A neat function of this account is that you simply earn cash on the money in your account (easy curiosity calculated on day by day minimal stability and paid month-to-month).

Sadly, this account is barely obtainable to residents of Quebec. In case you are searching for a USD checking account, try our Greatest USD Financial institution Accounts article.

GICs

Laurentian Financial institution provides each Fastened-rate GICs and Market-linked GICs with aggressive charges and versatile phrases. They are often held in registered or non-registered accounts. The minimal funding quantity is $500. 

Fastened GICs are wanted by these desirous to predictably and safely develop their cash.

Market-linked GICs (which Laurentian calls “MotionGICs”) usually are not actually GIC’s within the conventional sense, and to be trustworthy, I’d steer of those merchandise fully. They’re at all times calculated to function within the Financial institution’s favour, and they’re onerous to comparability store for. You find yourself paying a steep value for draw back safety with out that value being made clear.

You’re a lot better off shopping for a fixed-rate GIC after which opening a Canadian on-line dealer account so as to spend money on equities equivalent to blue chip Canadian shares (which “ActionGICs” are investing in in your behalf). Our prime rated brokerage is presently Qtrade. You may learn extra about them in our Qtrade overview that we replace each month.

Fastened-rate GIC charges:

Laurentian Financial institution’s Market-linked GICs are referred to as “MotionGICs”, of which there are 3 choices:

• Canadian Sustainability MotionGIC: invests in publicly traded Canadian firms with a deal with environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives
• Quebec Efficiency MotionGIC: invests in publicly traded Quebec-based firms together with sectors of monetary providers, know-how, and shopper items
• Blue Chip MotionGIC: invests in massive, publicly traded Canadian firms with a monitor report of sturdy progress

The MotionGIC choices differ, however on the time of writing, these have been the present choices:

In case you’re procuring round for excellent GIC charges, try our complete have a look at the present Greatest GIC Charges in Canada.

Registered Plans

The registered plans obtainable from Laurentian Financial institution are as follows:

This can be a pretty complete providing with the vast majority of probably the most utilized Canadian registered accounts being provided. Hopefully, they are going to add the choice for a First Residence Financial savings Account (FHSA) within the coming years.

Laurentian Financial institution has a handful of different merchandise obtainable to purchasers, together with mutual funds, time period deposits, bank cards, mortgages, loans, and features of credit score.

Mutual Funds

Laurentian Financial institution provides mutual funds by means of Mackenzie Investments – certainly one of Canada’s largest funding administration corporations. Whereas mutual funds are straightforward to buy and mean you can diversify your portfolio, we advocate readers be taught extra about ETFs and index funds earlier than making a call.

The mutual funds from Laurentian Financial institution embrace:

• “Symmetry Portfolios”: 7 all-in-one funding portfolio choices 
• Month-to-month Revenue Portfolios: 3 portfolio choices for regular predictable earnings
• Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) funds: 8 totally different funds meant to have a optimistic influence on the planet

Time period Deposits

Time period deposits from Laurentian Financial institution present a 100% assure in your preliminary funding and have a assured fee of return. They’re fairly just like a GIC. Time period deposits require a minimal funding of $500 and are cashable with out penalty after 30 days. Curiosity is barely paid at maturity of the 14-month time period size, nonetheless. The present rate of interest is 2.75%.

Credit score Playing cards

There are presently 4 totally different Visa playing cards provided by Laurentian Financial institution.

Annual charges vary from $0 as much as $130, and many of the playing cards provide factors that may be transformed to cashback. For extra info on the obtainable Visa playing cards try the Laurentian Financial institution Credit score Playing cards web page. And for our prime picks, try our Greatest No-Price Money Again Credit score Playing cards article.

Mortgages

Laurentian Financial institution additionally provides mortgages with the choice of both a variable fee or a set fee. In addition they have mortgage insurance coverage, dwelling fairness line of credit score, and fairness line of credit score insurance coverage.

Strains of Credit score and Loans

Along with HELOCs and fairness traces of credit score insurance coverage, you may as well get the next by means of Laurentian Financial institution:

• Private Line of Credit score
• Private Line of Credit score Insurance coverage
• Private Mortgage
• Scholar Line of Credit score
• Scholar Mortgage
• RRSP Line of Credit score
• RRSP Line of Credit score Insurance coverage
• RRSP Mortgage
• Mortgage Insurance coverage

Cellular App Overview

Laurentian Financial institution provides a cellular app supposed for on a regular basis day by day banking. It permits for many of the primary features we’d count on to see with a cellular app. You may view your account balances and transaction historical past, transfer cash between accounts, and ship, obtain, and/or request cash with Interac e-Switch. 

An enormous downfall of this app is that it doesn’t enable for cellular cheque deposits, nonetheless.

Whereas the app has over 50,000 downloads on Google Play there are a restricted 283 critiques and a star score of two.5 stars. Frequent complaints that Android customers point out are hassle logging in, hassle with e-transfers, or the dearth of capacity to deposit a cheque utilizing the app.

Apple customers are rather more happy with the app. There are almost 10,000 scores which have led to a score of 4.5 stars. Hopefully, sooner or later, they will make some enhancements to the Android app.

Laurentian Financial institution vs EQ Financial institution

EQ Financial institution persistently tops our listing of finest on-line banks in Canada, so each time we overview a web-based financial institution, we at all times like to check it with EQ Financial institution. 

Laurentian Financial institution and EQ Financial institution have an analogous line of accounts and product provides. You’ll see within the desk beneath, that whereas Laurentian Financial institution has a barely larger GIC fee, and a comparable financial savings rate of interest relying in your account stability, additionally they have much more charges than EQ Financial institution!

Merchandise	Chequing and financial savings accounts U.S. Greenback (solely in Quebec) Joint accounts GICs Laurentian Financial institution Visa Credit score Playing cards Mortgages HELOC TFSA + RRSP+ RESP Extra Strains of Credit score	Hybrid chequing/ wavings accounts Reloadable EQ Financial institution card U.S. Greenback financial savings Joint accounts GICs Money Again card Discover Account Mortgage Market RRSP + TFSA+ FHSA International cash transfers Elite foreign money trade HELOC and Reverse Mortgage
Month-to-month Charges	$4.00-$14.75 for various chequing accounts	$0
INTERAC E-TRANSFERS	$1.00 every (except paying for Limitless Account)
Financial savings Account Curiosity Price	2.50% on balances underneath $100,000 3.50% on balances from $100,000 to $5,000,000.	3.50% or 3.05% with the EQ Discover Account.
GIC 1-Yr Curiosity Price	3.75%.	3.55%
Signal Up	Go to Laurentian Financial institution	Go to EQ Financial institution

Laurentian Financial institution Overview – FAQ

Is Laurentian Financial institution Proper For You?

Laurentian Financial institution provides a strong vary of account choices, aggressive rates of interest, and monetary merchandise. Nevertheless, its charges are comparatively excessive for a web-based financial institution. In comparison with our top-rated Canadian on-line banks, Laurentian Financial institution fees considerably extra whereas limiting the variety of free transactions allowed inside a chequing account earlier than extra charges apply.

For these dwelling outdoors Quebec, Laurentian Financial institution’s providers include additional restrictions. For example, opening a scholar account requires an in-person appointment, which is impractical to many Canadians given that every one department places are in Quebec. Equally, the USD account is accessible solely to Quebec residents.

That stated, Laurentian Financial institution could be a sturdy selection for Quebecers, who usually face eligibility boundaries with different Canadian on-line banks. With roughly 60 branches within the province, prospects can entry in-person providers and consolidate most of their accounts underneath one establishment. For these keen to handle the related charges, the financial institution could provide comfort and accessibility.

After a deep dive into reviewing Laurentian Financial institution, our advice for the highest on-line financial institution in Canada stays EQ Financial institution. Their low charges, variety of account choices and merchandise, and their superior cellular app have them popping out on prime time and time once more. To be taught extra about EQ Financial institution, learn our thorough EQ Financial institution Overview.